Bringing science to the people: The African story and the legacy of South Africa

By G O Okeng'o

University of the Western Cape & University of Nairobi

© Copyright by Okeng'o Geoffrey Onchong'a, All Rights Reserved December, 2012

The week ending 8^th december, 2012, saw me attend a one week 'Adaptive Optics and Atmospheric Characterization summer school' in the town of Sutherland, South Africa. Adaptive Optics refers to a class of latest technological devises designed to eliminate degradation of star images generated when turbulent motions of air molecules in the Earth's atmosphere interfere with light coming from a star. The in-depth study and scientific modelling of the entire atmospheric layer is what is called atmospheric characterization. The main aim of the school was to bring together some of the world leading experts in adaptive optics technology, software development and atmospheric characterization, and, students from African countries and abroad, to share knowledge on the modern techniques required when choosing a site to locate an optical telescope. However, apart from enjoying the highly illuminating and mind-blowing lecturers delivered by the invited lecturers led by the outstanding South African Large Telescope (SALT) project scientist at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), Dr David Buckley, I also-as I often usually do- found some time to interact and learn from people in the local community. But, although during my helter-skelter walks, I was touched by the obvious signs of visible poverty and idleness amongst the people in this semi-desert Springbok invested area, where the main economic activity is sheep farming, two things stood out above the rest: (1) the impeccable Afrikaans language-accented english and the genuine hospitality of the people, and, (2) the impact of the SALT telescope on the local community's socio-economic status. SALT is the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere and among the largest in the world, commissioned in 2005, and owned by South Africa (1/3) and 12 international partners. To crown it all, an outstanding public educational facility called “the Sutherland Community Development Center (SCDC)” founded under the innovative and visionary leadership of the International Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD)'s current director Kevin Govender, caught my ingenious attention. It is the positive change that this facility with a single sitting capacity of over 100 people and close to 30 modern computers connected to fast internet optical fibre, complete with a baby's toy corner, that motivated me to pen down this article. It's my sincere hope that by reading this article you will be as motivated as me, so that together we can work towards implementing a similar concept for the rural people in our home countries. Together we can transform Africa from a 'basket case' to 'the bread basket'!

Despite mild efforts to improve literacy levels across different countries in Africa, the road leading to the promised land of Canaan where the honey of “100% literacy” flows freely, still remains largely illusive. Access to good education, especially in rural areas and poor townships, remains a challenge, prompting many youth to engage in illegal and criminal activities such as prostitution, thuggery, mugging, drug and substance cartels among others, in order to put bread on their table.

The aging and the old are not left out. They are often frail, sick or both, with their sad grinned faces mirroring a written history of many years of suffering and hard life. Many will often be seen swallowing bitter saliva in anticipation of a better tomorrow. Their hope is that their sons and daughters would one day find decent jobs, that their half-naked, impoverished grandchildren would get a good education and have a better future than theirs. But how many of us of the privileged clout care? Has our leadership failed? Can anyone provide leadership out there?

Your answer to the above questions is as good as mine, but one thing is clear: that many of us have failed! I will tell you why. We have failed to think of how far we have come (for those of us who've surmounted difficulties to succeed-me included) or how privileged we are (for those who've never lacked or struggled in life). We have failed to remember who paid for our college education. Did I hear someone say a government/university bursary? Company bursary? Or my parents money? But where do governments, universities, companies or your parents monies come from? Doesn't it come from taxes levied on all cadres of people directly or indirectly? Doesn't it come from investments, mineral exploration and farming on the land that once belonged to the ancestors of the same poor and disadvantaged people? Aren't we then supposed to plough back to society that which it has given to us?

My late grandfather, a visionary, hardworking and typical African-styled man-may God rest his soul- always reminded me one thing. You see, during the time when I grew up (proudly close to 3 decades ago), in my rural home Kisii Kenya, it was a common phenomenon to pump into mushrooms in the forest while grazing my father's cows or while harvesting guavas in the bushes or during our “wild bees and termite-harvesting” errands. He always reminded me to cut the tip of the mushroom and return it to the hole from which I uprooted the mushroom. Why? He said that by doing so I could return the following day and harvest more mushrooms! And surely I often did-unless someone picked the mushrooms earlier than me- I thought.

But how many of us are willing to return the 'tip' of our mushroom to the 'hole' from which we uprooted the mushroom? We all seem to have locked our hopes in the safes of selfish political mandarins-the often pot bellied elites a majority of whom are merchants of impunity and the epitome of chagrinism- and thrown the keys to “hell”. Whatever that means. But what I'm I talking about? Or can we do better?

Well, my answer is YES. It has been done, it's being done and it can be done, the only question is how. This brings me to the main theme of this article; the story about the Sutherland Community Development Center (SCDC).

The inception:

Mr Kevin Govender, the brain behind the center's concept is a man who needs little introduction. His undying love for astronomy education, and the desire to foster interest in maths and science saw him propel the SALT Collateral Benefits Program-a program that was designed to tap into the investment in the SALT telescope for for the benefit of society- to greater heights. His legacy, while at the helm of leadership of the SALT Collateral Benefits Programme, played a key role in steering South Africa to winning the bid to host the International Astronomical Union's (IAU), International Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), which he currently heads. It is after the establishment of this office, that astronomy has continued to blossom in Africa, and nothing best illustrates this fact other than the recent landmark victory that saw Africa win another bid to host three-quarters of what will be the world's largest radio telescope ever built; the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). More bids are on the way, and africa will win them. The impact of the SCDC project on the local community is one such a 'smaller' bid-and I know there may be other small ones elsewhere in africa- worthy mentioning.

The Objectives:

The SCDC was designed to be a place for the community to grow, to develop and gain life skills, before venturing to the outside world. It's aim was to provide free fast internet to the local community and offer a play and learning facility to small children, the youth and young parents for purposes of their self empowerment.

The Internet Connection:

Internet to the center is provided by two wireless radio links; one installed on a tower on top of the hill facing Sutherland and the other on top of the Community centre building. The former consists of a high-powered 5GHz antennae through which a signal from the SAAO's Sutherland plateau data center is sent and re-routed via the second radio link before being routed via a normal ethernet cable inside the center, and then to all computers. The wireless kits are all solar powered with batteries and continually monitored from the SAAO IT Center in Capetown, in order to send someone with a generator to boost the power supply, incase the battery power levels drop too low. This ensures that the centre is always connected and online.

The Benefits:

Apart from providing the local community with fast internet, providing online research opportunities and a quiet study environment for the youth and learners in the area, the centre also offers free mentorship, guidance and learning assistance to the learners. And according to the Sutherland SALT Collateral Benefits Program director, Mr Anthony Mietas, the number of visitors to the center remains high and it's services are already impacting positively on the lives of the community. The SAAO IT Center's director Hamish Whittal, further points out that phase two of the project will see the only two schools in the area; Roggeveld Intermediary School and Sutherland High School also receive internet connection.

The future of the youth in Sutherland therefore looks bright, or so I can say, and a similar model is worthy adopting across African countries in the quest of making Africa a technology and educational hub!

The Parting Shot:

One unique pillar underpinning success of the SCDC is the power of the volunteers. Indeed, the mentoring and guidance carried out at the centre is done by self-motivated and passionate volunteers who are 'ploughing' back to the society that which it has given to them. But, that is one way and there are many other ways-to skin the CAT. This then reinforces the slogan “It has been done, it's being done and it can be done.”

Big Science Comes to Africa, Kenya

For many decades, Africa has often been perceived as a place of hunger, famine and disease, where the only valuable form of research should be in food security and health. In this (mis) representation of Africa, the proponents hold the view that Africa is not a place for world-class science and research, but a destination for brief, small scale, short-term targeted projects without longterm returns, and a dumpsite 'market' for obsolete and third-class goods and electronics. I refuse to buy into this. Whereas most Africa nations lack enough resources and strong commitment to promote good science, some credit must, however, be given wherever it's due. Africa has woken up and a big tornado is on it's way, one that will swallow the pessimists still engraved in the past! And moreover, if the technological, infrastructural and economic gains made in the last decade are anything to go by, plus the recently won "African World Cup" that will see construction of the world's largest radio telescope in African soil, then it seems to be indeed business unusual that big science is making it's way to Africa!

In Kenya for example, technological fingerprints are already available for everyone-who cares- to see. From the highly innovative mobile money transfer system M-pesa, mobile technological applications such as M-shamba, M-banking et cetera, to the hi-tech 'seeding' labs being established in preparation for the envisioned Konza technology city, argued to be the next Africa's  Silicon Savanna and the now available government funding towards innovative research, Kenya is-despite a few challenges-, indeed showing signs of the required momentum necessary to turn her into a regional and African technology and educational hub.

However, in this article, I discuss a special form of big science that is making it's way to Africa, and which, harbors a huge potential in transforming Africa into an international scientific hub and a competitive partner in world-class scientific research. First things first, let  me begin with the basics. The science of astronomy allows us to look back in time to the beginning of the Cosmos because the light from distant stars, galaxies and other objects in the universe takes a long time to journey through space before reaching our telescopes (us). We therefore see these distant objects (today) as they were very long time ago; astronomically speaking, “we look back in time”. What this means is that if something was to happen to the Sun now (let's say it switches off!) we can only know this after eight minutes because light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach the Earth. We say that the distance to the Sun is eight light minutes. On the other hand, if you wanted to see the nearest star Proxima Centauri as it is now, then you will need to stand and remain where you are for 4 years, because it's only by then that the light emitted today would have arrived! You can then agree with me that by then you would already be four years behind and hence lagging back in time. This is the same principle that astronomers apply to know about everything else in the universe.

As many of you might already know from international news, following months of a highly energized contest between the bids of  South Africa and it's 8 African partner countries among them; Kenya, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Ghana, Madagascar and Mauritius, and, Australia jointly with New Zealand, a landmark breath-taking decision was made last month that saw Africa chosen to host about a third of what would be the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (abbreviated as SKA) with Australia and New Zealand hosting the remaining part.

What is the SKA?

The SKA will be a revolutionary radio telescope that will be used to make pictures of radio waves instead of light waves, and will consist of thousands of radio wave receptor elements called “antennas”, distributed across the continent, linked together by a highly sophisticated technique in radio astronomy called interferometry-that itself worn a Nobel prize in physics.

The antennae or dishes of the SKA, will be spread across the African continent, across to Australia and New Zealand, so that the sum of effective collecting area of the antennae will be equivalent to a single dish having an aperture with an area of one million square meters, making it the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built, and over 50 times more sensitive and will allow mapping of the sky more than one thousand times greater faster than the world's largest instruments. .

The Technology of the SKA

To increase it's sensitivity and help provide high resolution images of stars, galaxies and other astronomical objects, the SKA will employ a very special design that will see a concentration of most antennae in a central core while the rest will be arranged to form a spiral pattern such that the spacing will gradually increase from the central core outwards.

The kind of science that will be done by the SKA

The SKA will detect signals in the radio frequency band from space. It will provide astronomers with an insight to: how the first stars and galaxies formed, how magnetic fields formed in the early universe and how this influenced galaxy formation, the nature of dark matter (the non-interacting invisible form of matter that forms about 25% of the universe) and dark energy (the mysterious form of energy that is tearing the universe apart and forms about 74% of the universe), test the famous Einstein's theory of general relativity and hence the nature of gravity, and, last but not least, search for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

How much will it cost?

The total approximate budget for the SKA is about 1,500 million Euros, but it could be more

How will Africa benefit from the SKA?

The design, development, construction and operation of the SKA will be done in collaboration with local and selected foreign industries, likely to foster skills transfer and development of local industries and skilled manpower.

Being an international project, the SKA will attract world top scientists and expatriates to Africa hence not only leading to the much needed skills transfer into the continent but also attracting back some of the Africa's top scientists abroad.

Governments will be compelled to train a massive number of engineers, astronomers, software engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and technicians which will boost the amount of skilled manpower.

The massive data handling, transfer, processing and storage will require high performance supercomputers and very fast internet leading to improved internet speeds, data handling and signal processing technologies and interconnectivity.

Are we ALONE in the Universe?

By G. O. Okeng'o 

© Copyright by Okeng'o Geoffrey Onchong'a, All Rights Reserved August, 2012

The question of the origin and the existence of life in the universe is a very controversial one. On a very broad spectrum, the views on this subject, by different individuals, are bound differ according to whether one adopts a religious standpoint or the scientific paradigm. On a more general sense, however, the two pictures seem to complement each other with the former seeking answers to the questions “why” while the latter attempts to address the questions “how”. It is on this basis that it can be argued that science really does not necessarily anyway contradict religion but in actual sense the two co-exist to serve different purposes. However, this may not augur well with some schools of thought who may often want to initiate spirited debates on this subject (this is allowed!) but whose basis is likely to be due to a number of opposing views which I will discuss in a future edition in this series.

However, despite this quagmire enigma and the numerous efforts by scientists to discover other “earths” out there, one thing is as clear as snow; that we all know of only one place where life exists and we can see it today, and that is the planet Earth. But as discussed in my previous article titled “How Big is the Universe?” the Earth occupies only a very tiny portion of the whole universe and using the numbers I provided this ratio comes to about 1:3,000,000,000,000,000,000; that is one part in three billion billion kilometers, where one billion is the number one (1) followed by nine (9) 'zeros'. That's the region of space occupied by us in the universe!

While you digest these numbers, it is also important to further reinforce the fact that the Earth is just but only one planet in our solar system that consists of eight planets (following the demotion of Pluto- I will discuss this in a future edition!), located third from the Sun with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune being the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eight respectively, and this system, together with a number of minor objects including dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids and rock debris are what makes up our solar system.

A solar system by definition is an 'arrangement' of planets and other smaller bodies that orbit a central star under mutual gravitational attraction. But how many stars (like the Sun) do we have in the universe? How many of them have their own planetary systems? Is there a possibility that some of the planets going around those suns (stars) or some of them could be Earth-like? Could these planets be harboring intelligent life or any other form of life? Are we alone in the universe?

To answer this questions, it's important to draw your attention to the following known facts: scientists estimate that there are about 1 trillion stars in our galaxy and over 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Now, if we temporarily assume that each galaxy is a typical medium-sized galaxy, like our own Milky Way, (not a bad assumption since many of such galaxies are known e.g Andromeda), the total number of stars like the Sun in the universe comes to about 10,000 billion billion! Simple mathematical probability then undoubtedly leads to the (not) so surprising result that it will be very 'selfish' to argue that we are the only creatures existing out here... If true this is likely to violate the fundamental law of natural economics: “thou shalt not waste space”.

But why do scientists care about the existence of life outside the Earth? (extraterrestrial life) or other creatures to be precise? How do they find it? What do they look for? And what have they found so far?

The first question is tricky but easy to answer, the rest are a subject of ongoing research and can only be answered tentatively.

Well, scientists care about existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe because that is science; they are scientists, so they do science! On the other hand, the question of whether we are alone in the universe has vexed humans for a number of centuries and according to a recent television survey in UK published in the Mail Online (29^th June, 2012), this is the top-most question among the top mysteries that many people are most desperate to see solved. Second on this list is the cure for cancer, followed by a prove if God exists and as you might have guessed.... further down near the bottom of the list is the question of why the fridge lights do not go off when the fridge door is closed!

The following facts sum up answers to the questions above:

No contact yet with an “Extraterrestrial"

You might have heard, (or probably claimed yourself) that they (you) have been visited by aliens or sighted some Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's). But how true is this? And what does science say about this? To begin with, no ordinary mortal person can completely say that such creatures do not exist at all or that they haven't visited anybody. However, these claims remain untrue scientifically (unless one captures the alien for everybody to see or captures the UFO so that it can undergo lab verification tests to show that it's indeed an extraterrestrial!). Beyond that, such claims remains entirely unfounded and hence untrue (at least scientifically). To try and verify this idea, astronomers have for many years scanned the sky using powerful telescopes to detect weak signals from extraterrestrial beings but so far nothing has been detected. Relaxed now?

For Life to Exist conditions must be “Just Right”

For a planet to support life, very stringent conditions must be fulfilled. It must for instance among other things; contain sufficient liquid water, be at the “right” distance from it's sun (star) and must be neither too hot nor too cold otherwise all the liquid water would evaporate or freeze, hence support no life.

No spontaneous life

According to scientific findings, for life to develop, there must exist specific initial conditions. If such conditions are not met in a planet, no life would develop.

Vast distances makes finding extraterrestrial life (im)possible

If we could send humans onboard of the Apollo 11 mission that landed men on the moon, the journey to the nearest star Proxima Centauri would take about a million years. What if we can make it accelerate? You can quip! Well, if we send an unmanned mission cruising at the incredibly high one-tenth the speed of light (which is about 30,000 km a second!), the journey would still take over 40 years. However, the success of this will also depend on whether the spacecraft would survive tearing apart from violent collisions with the thousands of grains and loose particles present in space (which is most unlikely). But let us be optimistic enough and assume that the spacecraft survives and completes the journey. Fuel economics then dictates that an enormous amount of power (or fuel) would be needed to fuel this journey. Estimates (it is easy to perform a simple calculation to prove this) show that the amount of energy needed to fuel such a voyage would be equivalent to the total electric power consumption required to power the whole world for one month! Would it then be possible to send missions to other stars in the universe? Simple estimates tells us further (against the wishes of scientists) that not even a combination of all world economies would have the capacity to fuel such a project!

Now you know better; there is simply not enough technological manpower (at the moment) to enable us make contact with our 'friends' out there, so are we alone in the universe? Or what do you think?

Is there a difference between astronomy, astrophysics, space science (and navigation)?

By G. O. Okeng'o

A friend of mine recently asked me if there is any difference between the three disciplines: astronomy, astrophysics and navigation. My instincts told me that by mentioning the latter he probably mean't space science, so I chose to hold my cards close to my chest and provide a full answer to his (intended and asked) question....

The term astronomy comes from two Greek words “astron” meaning “star” and “nomos” meaning “law” and therefore 'literary' means "the laws of stars". It  is a natural science (a science that seeks to explain the natural world using laws of science) that deals with the study of celestial objects or celestial bodies such as planets, asteroids, comets, stars and galaxies, and all phenomena that originate from beyond (or outside) the Earth's atmosphere (also called 'space') such as the cosmic microwave background (or CMB in short).

Astrophysics is a branch of astronomy that deals with the physics, chemistry, meteorology, motions and interactions between celestial objects,  their physical properties such as temperature, chemical composition and structure, and the physics of the space between stars (interstellar medium) and that between galaxies (intergalactic medium).

The differences above are, however, only historical; and were based on astronomy being considered an observational science charged with observing and storing data about positions and properties of celestial bodies (cataloguing the heavens), while astrophysics was deemed a theoretical science concerned mainly with computing models and formulating theories to be tested against the observations.

In the present era of modern astronomy, the two disciplines refer to one but the same subject since both astronomers and astrophysicists today use a combination of observational and theoretical tools such as telescopes and various analytical techniques to study the universe.

Space science- can be defined as the study of 'issues' related to outer space (and voila! Astrophysics becomes one branch) and may include, but not limited to:

• Planetary science- study of planets other than the Earth
• Solar astronomy- study of the Sun
• Stellar astronomy- study of stars
• Galactic astronomy- study of the Milky Way galaxy (our galaxy)
• Astronautics- the science and engineering spacefaring and spaceflight, a branch of aerospace engineering (which includes atmospheric flight)
• space food, space medicine, astrobiology etc

Navigation-, on the other hand, is a field of science that focuses on the monitoring and controlling of the movement of an aircraft, spacecraft or vehicle from one place to another. In includes sub-fields such as: land navigation, marine navigation, aeronautic navigation, and space navigation, which refer to monitoring motion through land, sea, air and space respectively. In the context of astronomy and astrophysics, the relevant type of navigation (such as the one used by NASA to land the Curiosity rover on Mars, yesterday) is space navigation. And space navigation requires good knowledge about space and hence astrophysics.

References

1. www.wikipedia.org

An open letter to all physicists

By G. O. Okeng'o

What's happening to the subject we have all loved and served?

More than any other discipline, physics has transformed the face of civilization, particularly during the last century. It has developed techniques and insights that have propelled chemistry, biology and medicine to new heights. It has led to the genesis of modern engineering and has created vast industries, such as energy, communications, computing and the broadcast media. It has been the winner of wars and preserver of peace. It has played a seminal role in the emergence and development of the Internet, one of the most significant new communication media in history. As we march through the 21^st century, its potential for economic and social innovation remains greater than ever.

  Yet as we survey the state of physics as a viable enterprise, the signs of accelerating decay and decline are distressingly clear. The number and calibre of students and teachers that it attracts are falling alarmingly. Academic departments are shrinking, amalgamating and closing. Corporate physics labs are deemed to be an extravagance in the era of deregulation and "market forces". Morale in the global community of physicists is waning as professional positions, research grants and fellowships continue to diminish. Among non-physicists, and particularly among non-scientific decision makers in politics and business, physics is perceived to have had its day, never again to merit the pivotal position that it held during the 20th century. Physics is in crisis, it would seem, and the future is believed to belong to biotechnology and software engineering.

Some analysis before prognosis

It is vital that we, as physicists, analyse the current crisis carefully before rushing to embrace easy answers and shallow remedies. It is sometimes assumed, for example, that it will be enough merely to publicize what we do - that the root of the problems of our subject is a simple inability to market it as aggressively as those in biotechnology or IT, for example, manage to do. Certainly we must take these elementary steps, difficult though they may be for us physicists, who have always considered the worth of our subject as self-evident. However, we must delve more deeply into the state of physics and physics education, asking difficult and embarrassing questions. For example, has physics lost its intellectual appeal as the basis for all science and engineering? Does physics training still provide the talents needed at the cutting edge of technology? Have our courses and research programmes adapted to the rapidly changing dynamics of university education, as it evolves from serving an elite group of school leavers to providing advanced vocational education for a large cross-section of society? Have we adapted to the new reality of the pace and scope of innovation and investment in high-tech industry, as the new knowledge-based economies place ever greater emphasis on intellectual property and the laws of increasing returns?

   Nothing has provoked these questions and their attendant doubts as much as the advent of IT and the Internet, where the value of bits is emphasized while the value of atoms is taken for granted. There are, it appears, no atoms in cyberspace.

Is physics simply too successful?

In many ways, physics has been a victim of its own successes. We have helped to create a rapidly changing world, in which microscopes, telescopes, space vehicles, MRI scanners, mobile phones, lasers, DNA- sequencing equipment and the rest are yesterday's news. We cannot compete with the palpable sense of excitement created by popular books such as Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital, in which it is assumed that physicists and electronic engineers will continue to do their jobs so well that unlimited computing power, data-storage capacity and communication bandwidth can be taken for granted by the software engineers.

   Our systems are so capable and reliable that they have become transparent - the performance of practical systems being limited only by software glitches and limited user understanding of the vast networks that we provide. Packet-switched data networks are so versatile that they will one day probably cost their users nothing apart from a modest access fee. (Perhaps we should build fibre-optic systems and digital radio transmitters that cost a fortune to use and break down more often so that our crucial role will become more apparent.) There are, in fact, many atoms in cyberspace, but they perform so flawlessly that only the antics of the bits and pixels that they support are visible to the world at large.
    At the other end of the spectrum, our research into the "external" frontiers of physics - fundamental areas such as high- energy physics, cosmology, gravitation and quantum physics, in which we are pushing to the limits of energy, time and distance - has succeeded so well and progressed so far that it has become incomprehensible to all but a few specialists. Large-scale transnational efforts are often required, in which politics and economics can dominate and obscure the physics. Whether looking at bits, quarks or plasma ignition -or in many other cases where physics has a vital role to play- the importance of physics is invisible to non- physicists. Clearly our communication and marketing skills need to be developed and used in earnest, and they must be directed at the future rather than the past.
   Then there is the anti-science culture that is rising steadily in most countries. Again much of the blame can be laid at the door of the practitioners: our successes have distanced physicists from the public, making us appear mysterious or arrogant. We have become closely identified with the military- industrial complex. We are blamed for releasing the twin genies of nuclear fission and thermonuclear weapons. Such is the level of distrust that we have engendered that even the power lines and cellular communication masts required by the rapid growth of new industries are believed to cause health hazards comparable to those of industrial pollution or tobacco smoking. Scientists are believed to be part of the problem rather than the solution.

   And what of our relationship with the vast physics-based industries that drive the developed world's economies? In the past, physicists have had so many choices and career options that we have kept only the most intellectually stimulating and academically respectable topics (in our opinion) and abandoned many of the more mundane but useful technologies and industries to the engineers. The contrast with chemistry- and biology-based industries is striking: to pursue a career in these industries one needs a degree in the core scientific discipline, whereas to enter physics-based industries it is usually easier if one has a degree in some branch of engineering. Physics is erroneously seen by many employers as being too abstract and esoteric for their needs.


What are the solutions to this problem?


The crisis now facing physics and physicists is a multi-layered one that has developed over decades. To resolve it we will need a careful, considered and strategic response, not merely for physics graduates working as engineers or IT specialists. We must make university physics courses more attractive and accessible to a range of students. However, we should avoid at all costs the temptation to "dumb down" to garner popularity: it would be far better to build a new education and training structure to enable moderately able students to master difficult material. Instead of the forbidding quasi-professional primary physics degrees offered in most universities, with their steep learning curves, we should seriously consider schemes where students accumulate credits at a flexible pace toward broader primary degrees. Students would then learn to understand and use physics in context with mathematics, computing, chemistry, biology and engineering, and sample topics from the humanities and business studies. For those wishing to become professional physicists, this broader first degree would be topped up by a sharper, more focused, professionally accredited postgraduate degree involving vocational training and experience.
   The 21st century requires new interdisciplinary insights and work habits, and we need to develop and position physics as an ideal basis for this continually evolving mode of education and working. A physicist should be seen as a person who can enhance any scientific activity or industry, because of both specific technical training, and general problem formulation and solving skills. Physics applied to economics and finance should be encouraged and researched rather than lamented as a waste of talent.
   We must reinvent physics to remain the basis for all science - the dynamics of bits and pixels as well as atoms and photons. This will require fundamental new approaches to information science, including (but not limited to) physical treatments of information at a quantum level. We should develop the "internal" frontiers of physics - those areas in which we are finding new insights and applications within the currently accessible regimes of time, energy and space. These include dynamical systems and control, hard and soft condensed matter, environmental physics, biophysics, ultrafast optics and nanoscale electronics. Such topics should connect naturally and seamlessly with developments in the life sciences, information and communications technologies, energy studies and other emerging priorities. They should be accorded the same respectability as the external frontiers of physics, where elite efforts should continue for the sake of basic human curiosity.
   We must increasingly focus on those areas crucial to the benefit of humankind, including medical physics, space exploration and novel forms of energy. There must also be a continued emphasis on information. While it is impossible to set targets and deadlines in these areas, it is vital that physics and physicists should play - and be seen to play - a vital role in the continued development of the human race.
   We must persuade the politicians, captains of industry, journalists and other agents of influence that physics is an essential ingredient in the mixture of talents that is needed in the 21st century and beyond. We must restore the drive, energy and excitement to physics by reinventing both it and ourselves. We need to open up the doors and windows, clean out the cobwebs, and identify and safeguard the true treasures of physics. Only then can we set about the task of rebuilding our subject to become the basis of the new interdisciplinary science, engineering and innovation culture of the information age.

(Adapted from Prof John McInerney's article titled “How to survive in the 21^st century”, Physics World, 2000)

What's the Relevance of Astronomy and Astrophysics for Development?

By G. O. Okeng'o

“Many have asked me this question; students, politicians, colleagues and media.. here is a quickly 'put-together' answer to quench your 'thirst' and illuminate your thoughts on what the “Tom” and “Dick” of astronomy are up to...."  (G. O. Okeng'o, 2012 )

A brief summary of the answers to this question can be found by reading the “introduction” part of the International Astronomical Union's (IAU), “Astronomy for the Developing World Strategic Plan 2010–2020” which can be downloaded online by following the link: http://iau.org/static/education/strategicplan_091001.pdf.

But in a very brief sense, historically, from the times of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (the great greek philosophers who laid the foundations of science), Claudius Ptolemy, Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and the rest (the great scientists who made outstanding discoveries that revolutionized science), astronomy has played a major role in the development of modern science, upon which all technology today is based. In particular, development of devices for astronomical applications such as charge coupled devices (CCD's) and high resolution imaging cameras, have not only found various applications in many industrial applications, but have also led to spin-offs in fields such as medicine (X-rays, imaging e.t.c), military sciences, GPS and radio communications, engineering, software technology et cetera, that are of economic significance.

The main reason is that astronomical problems are challenging, and,that the universe offers a unique laboratory in which the laws of science can be tested under extreme conditions-conditions that are impossible to replicate here on earth-(and one does not need permission from anybody to access this laboratory!), astronomy, therefore, seeds curiosity among people, and this curiosity intertwined with attempts to confront 'real' world problems has lead to new technological inventions.

A good example to illustrate this is the Square Kilometer Array: Since it's inception 2005, the South African government through it's South African Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Project has given over 400 bursaries to South African and African students to obtain PhDs and Msc's in areas as diverse as engineering, technology, astrophysics, cosmology, radio astronomy etc (see www.ska.ac.za). Besides this, cutting-edge technologies have also been developed, and, are being developed, new road networks have been created, data link, storage and analysis skills and networks have put in place among others, and above all a vibrant network of enthusiastic young engineers, radio astronomers, technicians and software developers has been created, here in Africa, and the number continues to grow... And with a major portion of the SKA set to be build in South Africa and it's 8 African partner countries (including Kenya), the scientific heat is increasing and the scientific, economic, technological and social benefits that Africa stands to gain are enormous...

From improved infrastructure, better technology, growth of African companies and enterprises, establishment of international links and skills transfer, to an increase in high-skilled people and a highly motivated future young mathematically and science oriented generation, these are just a few of the many possible gains that Africa is likely to experience from an international project of this magnitude. It is also important not to also forget that 'everything' in future is headed towards looking into space: weather monitoring, agriculture, defense, nuclear testing, astro-mining and geology, good science; countries are gearing towards utilizing space for these and many more socio-economic activities. Ignoring space sciences in going into the future, therefore, will not only put a passive nation in the receiving end but will also leave it buried in yesteryear technologies...

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Landing in less than 9 days!

By G. O. Okeng'o

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) or the Mars Curiosity Rover, launched by NASA on November 26, 2011 is currently en route to the red planet Mars and is scheduled to land in Mars's Gale Crater at about 05:31 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), on August 6, 2012. 

The rover's objectives include searching for life in Mars, studying the Martian climate, studying the Martian geology, and collecting data for a future manned mission to Mars.

Curiosity is about twice as long and five times heavier than the Spirit or Opportunity Mars exploration rovers (launched in June and July 2003), and carries over ten times the mass of scientific instruments. It will attempt a more accurate landing than previous rovers, within a landing ellipse of 7 by 20 km (4.3 by 12 mi), in the Aeolis Palus region of Gale Crater. This location is near the mountain Aeolis Mons (formerly called "Mount Sharp"). It is designed to explore for at least 687 Earth days (1 Martian year) over a range of 5 by 20 km (3.1 by 12 mi).

The Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort for the robotic exploration of Mars, and the project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of California Institute of Technology. When MSL launched, the program's director was Doug McCuistion of NASA's Planetary Science Division. The total cost of the MSL project is about US$2.5 billion.

Source: Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org

Just How Big is the Universe

By G. O. Okeng'o

Ever since the origins of mankind the questions as to “How big?” and “How far?” things are in the universe have always attracted much attention and spun curiosity down the spines of the human race. On a beautiful clear night, one is likely to see a myriad of stars that seem innocently close and so reachable that he/she may feel the temptation of reaching out to them or even touching them! This then begs answers to the questions: how far are those stars? What lies beyond/behind those stars? What is their composition and what mechanism powers them? How large is the universe as a whole? What is the universe composed of and how do we humans fit in into the whole picture of the cosmos? Well, if you find these and many related questions interesting then you are not alone! You are only doing what the greek philosophers did several years ago that gave birth to the well-known `scientific process or method', which was later to be extended by great scientists amongst them; Nicolaus Copernicus (the father of the model that put the sun at the center of our solar system), Tycho Brahe (the first observational astronomer to obtain the most accurate data of all time), Johannes Kepler (a student of Tycho Brahe who used his data to propose how planets move), Galileo Galileo (the first man point a telescope-a light gathering and focusing machine- to the sky), Isaac Newton (the genius who formulated laws of gravitation and invented calculus a branch of mathematics that describes motion), Albert Einstein (the famous clerk-cum-scientist who invented the the most well tested theory of physics to date- general relativity) and Stephen Hawking (the greatest theoretical physicist of our time after Newton), just to name a few! It was on the shoulders of these and many other giants that the laws of science sprung, and with them followed the technology that we all enjoy today. But how do astronomers do their thing?

Sir Arthur Eddington, a famous british astrophysicist who lived between 1882-1944 (may God rest his soul!), once used an interesting analogy. He imagined of a large ship sailing across the ocean carrying sacks full of potatoes and a potato bug inside one of the potatoes trying to understand the nature of the ocean in which the ship was moving. He then likened the activities of the potato bug to scientists who study the universe (astronomers and cosmologists). Whereas he might have been reasonably spot on in terms of sizes, he was ultimately wrong in the spirit of his comparison because as we know today, the so-called 'potato bugs', have gathered lots of information about the universe and our knowledge about the workings and functioning of the universe continues to grow by the day, thanks to better technology and cutting-edge study techniques!. Astronomers therefore, have a simple mission; to understand the physical laws that govern the universe and their main tool is a combination of physics, chemistry, computer science and mathematics.

The question of size and location of things in the universe can be well illustrated by classifying cosmic structures in terms of hierarchy; from the smallest scales (our solar system), to the very largest scales (superclusters of galaxies) and then assembling a form of cosmic distance ladder. The universe is a big, big place and as a word of caution, in order to be a good student of the universe you will need to get accustomed to a new system of units that can get really large and sometimes mind-boggling compared to what you're used to! This is the origin of the term 'astronomical' that you may have probably heard some politicians and ordinary folks use.

Let us begin our feel for size with the planet Earth our `sweet home' which is about 6,400 km in size. A small jetliner would cover this distance in 40 hours. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun after Mercury and Venus in our solar system. It is orbited by the moon, the closest cosmic object to the Earth at a distance of about 400,000 kilometers (km). It took Apollo 11, the first spacecraft to land humans on the moon, (although some critics dispute this!) approximately 4 days to cover this distance. The Earth moves around the Sun at a distance of about 150 million km. Apollo 11 could have taken 5 years to travel this distance to the Sun. The farthest object in our solar system is the dwarf planet Pluto which sits at a distance of about 6,000 million km, approximately 60 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

At this point, the km becomes a small unit to measure distances and astronomers graduate to a larger unit of distance called the light year, defined as the distance that light travels in one year at it's known average speed of about 300,000 km per second, and it's equal to about 10 million million kilometers; the number 10 followed by 12 'zeros' or simply written as 10¹³ km in scientific form. However, the Sun is just one star in about 100,000 million stars that light up our galaxy, the Milky Way. All the stars observed in the night sky belong to the Milky Way galaxy and studies by astronomers indicate that they show properties similar to our Sun. The nearest star to us after the Sun is called Proxima Centauri and is at a distance of about 4 light years. It would have taken Apollo 11 about 1 million years to fly to Proxima Centauri! (would this have been possible?). Examples of other stars visible on the sky are; the brightest star in the night sky called Sirius at a distance of about 8 light years and the Pole star located at the North Pole and whose distance is about 700 light years. This would translate to about 2 million and 18 million respectively, were the Apollo mission to visit the two stars. The Milky Way galaxy is only but a medium-sized spiral galaxy about 45,000 light years across. At this point, the light year also becomes a small unit to measure distances on scales of galaxies. An even larger unit called the kiloparsec (kpc) equivalent to about 3,000 light years is introduced. This is the standard unit for measuring galactic distances which puts the size of our galaxy at about 15 kpc.

But the Milky Way galaxy belongs to a group of about 30 galaxies, some of which are considerably small in size called 'dwarf galaxies' and contain more than one million stars. This cluster of galaxies is called the 'Local Group' and the closest neighbour to our galaxy to is the 'Andromeda galaxy' in the constellation of Andromeda, at a distance of about 700 kpc. Andromeda has a size similar to the Milky Way and also contains about 100,000 million (10¹¹) stars. The Local Group cluster has a size of about 1000 kpc, called a Megaparsec (Mpc).

Observations using powerful telescopes show that galaxies are very social 'beings', preferring to assemble in groups rather than existing as isolated systems and that there are over 100 million galaxies similar to our galaxy in the universe. Apart from the Local Group, another cluster known as the 'Coma cluster' with a membership of about 1000 galaxies has also been discovered among others. However, further observations also point to clusters of galaxies existing in groups to form even larger clusters called 'Superclusters' and our cluster, the Local Group is thought to belong to the 'Virgo Supercluster' which is about 30-60 Mpc in size. This then leads to our initial question; how big is the universe? Assuming that the size of our universe has a scale similar to that of superclusters, we can put the lower limit of the 'observable' universe to be about 6,000 Mpc or 6,000,000 kpc or 18,000,000,000 light years or approximately 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers! And you can clearly see that the universe is indeed very BIG!

 References

1. Roger A. Freedman and William J. Kaufmann, "Universe", W. H. Freeman, 8th Edition.
2. www.wikipedia.org
3. T. Padmanabhan, "After the first three minutes: The story of our universe" Cambdidge University Press (1998)

Does the Universe have a Beginning? Does it have an End?

coming soon...